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[Erik]

Has TGHAR's research ever found anything to support a fresh water drinking machine?  I know sounds crazy, but read on...

This AP news article in the Miami Daily News (July 8,1937) referencing a 'vaporizing machine' carried onboard the aircraft.  The mention of 'fishing tackle' is also interesting.

Click HERE.

The Miami News - Jul 8, 1937
Earhart Food Supply Ample
SAN FRANCISCO, July 8. - (AP)
  Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan apparently could live for a month or more if they landed on an equatorial islet as searchers believed today.
  The plane carried chocolate bars, tomato juice, concentrated foods, considerable water, fishing tackle and most important, a machine to vaporize drinking water from the ocean.
  With any luck at fishing and continued operation of the vaporizing machine they could subsist indefinitely.
 
Could the 'vaporizing machine' have been the steel tank, cloth, and poles having been found by the coast guard?

Erik

[Martin X. Moleski, SJ]

Has TGHAR's research ever found anything to support a fresh water drinking machine?

No.

From the page that Cynthia sent me:

Los Angeles Times
Friday Morning
9 July 1937
Part I, p. 2

Mantz Continues to Hope for Safety of Aviatrix

... Mantz, who personally supervised much of the technical preparations for the flyer's second attempt to gird the globe by air, disclosed for the first time that the expedition carried no water condenser.  "It was left behind," he said.  "I learned yesterday that 'A.E.' deposited both the machine that manufactures water out of human breath and her hand-crank generator for the radio somewhere along her route from Miami to New Guinea. ...

The plane carried chocolate bars, tomato juice, concentrated foods, considerable water, fishing tackle and most important, a machine to vaporize drinking water from the ocean.

OK, that is slightly different from what the Mantz article describes.

Could the 'vaporizing machine' have been the steel tank, cloth, and poles having been found by the coast guard?

No.  That has been positively identified as a water tank used by the colonists (a 1996 picture of it is in the middle of the page).  A Coastie shot it and had to repair it.  Jeff Glickman noticed the tank in satellite photos.  Going to look at it led to the discovery of the Seven site, which is where the most intense archeological survey is being done on Niku VI even as we speak.

[Chris Johnson]

With todays update it appears that rain water could be recovered from tree boles and leaves.

An explanation for the bottles in the fire features could be the casterway boiling sea water and catching the de salinated vapour in a cloth that they could wring out into another container.

After shelter, Water is the next most important survival tool before food.

[Ashley Such]

The plane carried chocolate bars, tomato juice, concentrated foods, considerable water, fishing tackle and most important, a machine to vaporize drinking water from the ocean.

OK, that is slightly different from what the Mantz article describes.

What did Mantz's article say? Because in East To The Dawn by Susan Butler, apparently, these are the items AE carried with her on the trip: "...Amelia planned to put the maps into one suitcase; that and another suitcase, containing an extra pair of slacks, a few shirts, a mechanic's garb, a change of linen, and a toothbrush were all she would take with her. Four half-pound Nestle chocolate bars, six cans of malted milk tablets, three one-pound packages of raisins, one package of dried apricots, one package of prunes, two cans of ripe bananas, and three cans of tomato juice would end up stored in a waterproof zipper bag..."